Dielectric Rod Antenna Array

What is it about?

In this paper, an 8-element broadband novel antenna array based on the dielectric rod using a very simple microstrip slot feeding technique in Ku-band (12-18 GHz) is proposed. The proposed dielectric rod array is designed to obtain enhanced gain in the specified frequency band using the compact size element as compared to that of the single dielectric rod. It is observed that for a single dielectric rod, the length of the radiating rod should be about 5λ0 long in order to obtain gain of about 15 dBi. Additionally, the side lobe levels and the fluctuation in gain also start increasing with an increase in the dielectric rod length. To this end, the proposed dielectric rod array appears to be the optimum choice as it uses only 1.25λ0 long rods and provides a measured peak gain of 19 dBi with the minimum gain fluctuation and the side lobe levels over the operating bandwidth. The proposed array possesses the impedance bandwidth of around 40% which is comparable to the single element antenna bandwidth. The structures are simulated using the HFSS, to optimize various parameters. Finally, the 8-element antenna array is fabricated based on the optimized parameters and the testing is carried out in the anechoic environment.

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Why is it important?

It provides very easy way to design high gain broadband antenna

Perspectives